A basic framework for PM

So we know what product management (PM) is and some of the challenges of the discipline (see this post for an overview). But how do we put it into action? Is there a process you can follow to get started? Here, I’ll detail a small framework for PMs starting out or those who desire more structure in their work.

Mindset

Good product development starts with a mindset. Teams that perform well have a clear and often scientific approach, and a repeatable process. For teams that don’t, there’s a higher chance of resistance to adapting to new situations. Things that you’ll want to foster and hire for might be:

• Growth mindset and high agency: what can I do to control the outcome?
• Resourcefulness: what’s a minimal way to launch this?
• Experiment: applying the build-measure-learn and the scientific method
• Iterative: delivering value incrementally
• Fail fast: addressing riskiest assumptions first
• Customer journey awareness: Knowing the full funnel and communicating it to the team
• Without the full picture, it’s impossible to understand impact

Best practices and data-driven in decision making

• Make the best choice obvious to everyone

Of course, there may be aspects above that the team lacks.

• The good news is that it can be developed with the right people (growth mindset and agency rank high) but, as with all PM activities, the qualities needs to be communicated and fostered.
• Communicate and involve everyone in the process and mental modelling (e.g. JTBD) so that the best course of action is obvious.

Value documents are good but they won’t change your team’s mindset. What you need are things you practise, virtues (values that you already practise). For more on good attributes to hire for, see Ken Norton’s guide to hiring PMs.

A framework with the team in mind

How do we grow product in a sustainable and predictable way? Below, I’ve jotted down a basic framework adapted from Shopify’s product growth framework. It’s a framework that puts Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) in the centre and you can expand on it for your own needs. Whatever we do, we must make sure of one thing: that the customer is making progress in their lives.

🪜 Identify the company “stage” — how you “win” (strategy) will vary greatly based on the stage you’re at

• Are you launching an MVP?
• Are you still finding P/M fit?
• Is growth your main focus?

💼 Conduct customer discovery with JTBD

• Run customer discovery with JTBD in mind
• JTBD helps us empathise with our user without overly focusing on the solution
• It’s a great way to discover the customers struggles, desires, anxieties, etc.
• Interview your prospects and customers deliberately
• See Humanising for potential interview questions
• Make sure to document the job(s), pull forces, push forces, anxieties, habits
• These demand “forces” collectively form JTBD. You can read more about it here
• People often think of JTBD as framework to list “functional” tasks a user needs to do. But this could not be further from the truth: JTBD is framework to understand why we buy and what struggles we face that we want to overcome
• A clear JTBD document will be a reference document for “how are we helping the customer make progress?”
• As PMs, we must make it obvious what the customer’s goals are and communicate it to the team repeatedly
• We can use additionally:
• Customer Problem Rank Stack to understand how their problem compares
• Blogpost-driven-development to engage with potential users and gauge interest

🏁 Set the strategic goal — how to “win”

• What’s the goal at this point in time in my business? Perhaps it’s profitability, revenue, book size, users, engagement or something else.
• Make sure the goal aligns with or at least doesn’t conflict with the researched JTBD

🔽 Model the funnel

• Map out the customer journey and identify when your customer is:
• Passively looking: When they first encounter the problem
• Actively looking: When they might come across you
• Deciding: When they’re making the purchase decision
• Consuming: When they’re using your product
• Map out conversion rates within the funnel and always have tabs on where things can be improved
• Segment users by new users, existing users, etc.
• Look at CAC, MRR, LTV
• Identify opportunities in the funnel (drop-offs, etc.)
• Use:
• Customer journey map to map out the experience end-to-end
• AARRR (pirate) to model the funnel

⭐ Define your north star metric

• Quantify the “a ha” moment that leads to conversion (or make a proxy)
• Use the North Star metric (Amplitude)

♟️ Set a strategy: How do we win?

• Make trade-offs between competing efforts
• Choose the avenue that maximises the likelihood to win
• Use:
• Product-Market Fit framework, to have a proxy of your progress
• LNO to focus on highest leverage tasks
• Allocation [Shreyas] to manage your portfolio of initiatives

🛣️ Set a roadmap, prioritise

• Get the team to align on opportunities, priorities
• Use:
• Assumption Mapping to map unknowns and then test the riskiest assumptions first
• Theme-Epic-Story to thematically categorise efforts and add to the product backlog
• RFC proposals and involve people rather than handing over documents
• Work backwards (Amazon) to refine the proposals

🎯 Set targets: Tactical milestones for the team to execute towards

• Map roadmap items on a timeline

🏃Iterate quickly, deliberately

• From prioritisation to delivery, optimise
• Use:
• Scrum framework as well as stand-ups, retros, post-mortems to deliver and learn in timely fashion (weekly sprints)
• Design thinking where requirements need to be explored before implementing
• Wireframing de-risks implementing poorly designed UX
• Prototyping methods such as Wizard of Oz as well, to learn quickly
• Double Diamond appreciates that problem discovery and solution design require divergent and convergent phases
• CRAP rule to meet bare minimum design requirements
• Use existing design systems and don’t re-invent the wheel until your branding needs a custom one

👥 Develop a multidisciplinary team

• Product, engineering, design, data, and marketing

That’s the basic framework. Note, this framework isn’t a one-size-fits-all! For example, when you’re launching an MVP, you should really only be building enough to (in)validate your riskiest hypotheses. A lot of the higher-level aspects of this framework and strategy (how you win) may be obvious and execution will be the highest leverage activity.

Useful links

🔗 Ken Norton’s guide to hiring PMs

Thank you

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If you want to chat with me about product, please do reach out — I’m always keen to talk to product people!